Course Drying very Well

Friday, May 11, 2012 Drainage, Projects

The course is drying out very well following Wednesday afternoon's 1.5" of rain.  The golf course has drained extremely well and the new drainage on 4, 9, 12, and 13 is paying great dividends.  Last year's drainage projects on #1, 3, 7, 9, 12, 14, and 16 are still working very well.  It is safe to say that we would not have been dry enough to mow or drive carts off of the path without the renovation to the golf course and this additional drainage.  Today we are able to mow out the entire golf course and all of the fairways will be 90 degrees except for #3.  We still have a large drainage project scheduled on #4 this year and then we will shift the majority of our drainage focus to #3.  Natural springs and shade hamper drainage on this hole but we will continue to install drainage until we get it right.

I apologize for the appearance of the bunkers yesterday.  We had a few small washouts and took the opportunity while the sand was off of the lips to edge bunkers and push mow bunker surrounds.  That process is being finished today and bunkers are being mechanically raked and then hand raked to prepare them for play.

Have a great weekend,

Jordan
jbooth@willowoakscc.org

This labor intensive process is the best way to prepare our bunker edges and surrounds for play.

The rain washed the sand off of the lips which allowed us to get a great edge on the bunkers.  The rain also prevented mowing on Thursday so this was the perfect job for the staff.

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Green Speeds, Tee Markers, Virginia Tech Research and #12 Drainage

Friday, May 04, 2012 Drainage, Projects, Putting Greens, Questions

Yesterday's blog post sparked some real concerns about greens.  For this, I apologize.  We are all concerned about greens for the same reason.  We care about the golf course and we know that we cannot suffer the same results as last year.  But this year, we should be proud of the greens.  They are in great shape.  Stan, our USGA agronomist has been by and says we should be very pleased.  Our roots are good.  Just yesterday, the turf pathologist from Virginia Tech was on site to prepare for research trials this summer.  He has looked at samples from all over the golf course and our greens.  He has seen zero disease and is impressed with the progress.  The message from Stan and Virginia Tech is the one that I was trying to convey yesterday.  We need to be conservative this year.  Turf health is the number one priority.  Green speed will come and firm, fast greens have been the trend this spring.  When we have heavy rainfall and heat, we will be conservative. 

Speaking of pride, we should be proud of the entire golf course right now.  Outside of the collars, which are bouncing back well, the turf looks great.  Greens are growing a little too well (slow) but tees, fairways and approaches are hands-down the best they have ever been in May, maybe ever.  The bunkers are good, maybe a little firm, but good.  This sand is designed to be firm.  This helps prevent fried egg lies.  The only real eyesore that I see out there right now are the tee markers.

Over the past few year, the tees have not weathered well and the colors are difficult to see from any distance.  This week, in an effort to improve the visibility of the tees and to prolong the life of the tee markers, the centers were painted.  This has proven to be an unpopular decision but will only be temporary.  The tees need to be replaced.  Painting them was a temporary solution to get us through the season.  We are exploring other options and you will see some old markers on the course in the time being. 

Dave McCall, the turf pathologist at Virginia Tech was here yesterday to scout out some areas for turf research.  With the issues last year, Dave has agreed to be on site more often to evaluate the greens.  While he is here, he will be doing some research on fans and their affects on putting green health.  Dave mapped the greens where fans will be installed this year with GPS.  He also drove over the greens to test color, photosynthesis rates, and turf quality.  He will see how fans affect this throughout the growing season.  This will be a great working relationship and we look forward to Dave being on site.  Fan installations are contingent on the city approving our electrical plans.
The most recent drainage project was finished today on #12.  This area has stayed wet and turf quality was compromised in years past.  The staff worked very hard and the quality and speed of this project was good. 

I wanted to address these issues before I left for the day.

Have a great weekend,

Jordan
jbooth@willowoakscc.org

Dave McCall, the turf pathologist at VT, mapping #4 green.

Another picture of Dave GPS mapping the green.  You can see geese flying in the background.  My black lab, Ginny was working that afternoon as well.

The sod is stripped and saved.  This same turf will go back when we are finished.

Irrigation is located and the trench is cut for pipe to be installed.  The pipe will carry water to the drop inlet and the existing drainage.  The trench will consist of gravel, pipe, more gravel and then sand.  These porous materials help water find its way into the pipe.  The trench is tamped and leveled and then the sod is replaced.

It is important to measure and shoot grade multiple times before we install the pipe.  If the water does not drain we will have to be back in this area.

Once the trench is tamped and leveled, the sod goes back for a good finished product.  This area will heal over quickly and help us provide firm, dry conditions.

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Busy, Busy Week of Projects and Maintenance

Thursday, May 03, 2012 Drainage, Projects, Questions

Spring is here and with it, a very busy schedule.  I have been consumed with work and scheduling and have not posted lately.  This post will provide a quick insight into the last week or so.
Last Saturday was the 'Meet me at The Rock' event.  I hope everyone who played received a new ball mark repair tool.  We appreciate the initiative the golf committee has taken in course care and member education.  I enjoyed reconnecting and meeting many of you on Saturday.  Monday was a Mid-Atlantic PGA tournament here at the club.  Some of the best club pros in the region played and competed and our very own Richard White and Patrick Hawkins won the event with a best ball 65.  Congratulations.  So between prepping for those two events and sodding collars 9-18, we have been busy.  The remaining poor areas in collars will be stripped and sodded on Monday, May 7.  We have also taken the opportunity to finish the fescue conversion on the inside of the cart path on #9.  There is also a large project going on on the driving range to construct a new entrance path to the parking areas behind the back range tee and a lot of drainage being installed on #10 and 12.
Two other things that I need to discuss.  First, I would like to apologize to the gentleman who was on the driving range green this morning when the sprinkler heads came on.  This was an error when a command was being keyed into the system.  I apologize and I tried to get up there but you were already gone.
The other is greens speed.  We are currently growing grass like crazy.  It is in an effort to be as healthy as possible.  The greens have received a huge amount of play and this is starting to show on a few practice putting greens.  These greens will be closed for one week at a time beginning on Monday.  This is a practice that the green committee has approved and has been in place in for two years now.  We have limited practice green space and we need to protect these areas.  The greens on the golf course are slower and softer than we have been used to this spring.  First off, we are being very conservative due to the issues last year.  We have a lot of young grass out there and need to be focused on turf health.  Second, we have been wet.  In the last two weeks, we have received over 3.5" of rain.  This causes us to spray fungicides which have to be watered in and the cycle continues.  Our number one concern right now is turf health and with higher temperatures right around the corner, we have to be conservative with mowing and rolling.  This leads to slower speeds.  I know this is not as fun but slow greens are better than poor turf.  Wet conditions have also slowed our mowing efforts but as of today all tees, fairways, and approaches have been mowed and the golf course is really starting to take shape.  Please be patient with green speeds and continue to enjoy the golf course. 

Thanks and have a great weekend,

Jordan Booth
jbooth@willowoakscc.org

Sod that was left over from the collars project has been utilized on #9.  This completes the fescue conversion down the cartpath.  We ran out of sod at the end but this will be completed on Monday.  Our next area of conversion is down the cartpath on #14.

5-3-0, an organic slow release fertilizer has been drop spread around the greens to provide a safe, slow release of Nitrogen to the collars.  The dark color also attracts heat and in turn helps with green up. 

This is the very beginning of a drainage project on #12.  The sod has to be removed before any work can begin.  This is part of the ongoing project between 10 and 12.  Sod continues to move down both sides of that tree line.

This project is renovating the cart parking area for the range tees.  Carts now have one entrance and exit point and this area will be more aesthetic.  Space is limited around the range so please park in this area to avoid traffic congestion or injury.  This project is far from finished but you can start to see the idea. 

Another picture of the range path project.  The fence has been removed and the mulch areas along the road have been grassed.  These areas will be partitioned off with ropes and stakes.

   

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Great rainfall followed by Sod Work and a Save the Date

Wednesday, April 25, 2012 Drainage, Fertility, Projects, Putting Greens

This Monday, we were scheduled to lay sod around the greens where the collars are weak.  Our plans were changed when the golf course and the sod farm received 2 inches of rain.  This rain was very beneficial and really helped the golf course but delayed the sod until Tuesday.  On Monday we cleaned up from the storm, core aerated collars, and prepped for sod around the clubhouse putting green and the driving range practice green.  Come to think of it, we also spiked greens, and applied 3 different soil amendments based on soil tests. Greens were sprayed on Tuesday due to the heavy rainfall on Sunday.  Samples were sent to Virginia Tech's plant pathology lab to check for the presence of any disease.  Our preventative fungicide program is strong but we will be double and triple checking everything.
The sod around the driving range practice green was not as bad as the shaping of the soil around the driving range green.  Removing all of the sod allowed us to re-shape this green tie-in.  After we sodded around the clubhouse putter and the driving range putter, our team started to lay sod between 10 and 12.  This will be an ongoing project with drainage and grading taking place but we anticipate having the sod laid for this project by the first week of June.  Any sprigging in this area will be completed on June 11-12 when the golf course is closed for maintenance. 

Another truck of sod arrived today (~10,000ft2) and our staff fixed the collars around 18, 9, 12, 10 and 11.  We also installed drainage behind #9 green, replaced fescue on #1 with TifSport and laid sod between 10 and 12.  The collars on 13-17 will be repaired tomorrow.  This seems to be a lot of sod in the collars but I assure you that the collars are in good shape compared to years past.  We have no other winter kill on the golf course and after next week, all sod installed on the golf course will be in new improvement areas.
This week we look forward to the Meet me at the Rock tournament.  The Green and Golf Committees will be represented and really addressing course care.  Please remember to fix ball marks, fill divots, rake bunkers and be aware of your cart traffic.  Please respect the etiquette of this great game and leave the course better than you found it.  Our staff will be mowing all surfaces in anticipation of the event.
The next big course care event that we are looking forward to will be on Monday, June 4 from 5:30 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.  The event will be a course care walk through and golf course maintenance open house.  We will be walking the top 9 holes of the golf course and filling divots, enjoying some camaraderie, touring our maintenance facility, and hopefully learning more about what our staff does day in and day out to ready the golf course.  Dinner, beer, soda, and water will be provided at no charge.  I will have much more information about this event in a future post but please mark your calendars.

Hopefully these pictures and video will paint how busy and successful of a week it has been so far.

Mowing and installing sod around the clubhouse putting green on Tuesday morning.

Prepping for sod by shaping green surround and adding topsoil. 

Spraying greens following heavy rainfall.  Samples were sent off to Virginia Tech to analyze our greens for any disease presence. 

Greens were spiked following rainfall to allow for surface to dry as well as gas and oxygen exchange.

Sod was installed around the Driving Range green on Tuesday morning.

Collars were core aerated on Monday to relieve compaction and encourage healthy growing conditions.

The course was wet and we had to push some water off of fairways on Monday.  2 inches of rain over 24 hours will do that.  It is a true testament to the renovation that we are able to be 90 degrees on 85% of the golf course today.

More fescue was removed and replaced with TifSport on #1.  This extended the entrance to this fairway.

Soil amendments were applied on Monday to adjust fertility levels in the greens.

Drainage was installed behind #9 green.  This area is shaded and poor soils do not allow for proper drainage.

The sod was lifted and the trenches were filled with rock, pipe and sand.  You can see that our team is also finishing sodding around the green.

Ruben is adding sand and organic fertilizer to this finished drainage project.  Sod was replaced following leveling of the trenches.

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Drainage Project, Collars, and Putting Greens

Monday, April 09, 2012 Drainage, Projects, Putting Greens

This Monday has been driven by projects.  Chuck Cassick, our Horticulturalist, and his team have been working diligently in the parking lot spreading mulch.  The majority of that work will be done today.  Chuck still has a little more to do but the mulch will be finished by next Monday if all goes as planned.  Chuck's Grounds department consists of himself and one seasonal employee.  The golf course staff supplements labor as needed during big projects, plant installations and mulching.

We dove head first into another drainage project today.  Our staff installed about 200 feet of drainage to the left of #4 green.  Most people will remember that this area is usually a little wet and draining this swale will greatly improve playability and turf health.  This project will take us all of today and a little of tomorrow morning to finish.  In order to minimize disruption of play, we will be starting tee times off of #10 in the morning.  This will give us roughly another 2 hours and 45 minutes to work on this project before play gets to us.  That should give us plenty of time coupled with today to finish the project.  We will not start tee times off of #10 often but it is a nice tool to spread out play, change the golf course, and allow extra time for front nine projects.

Extra care is taken to keep this project as clean as possible.  We are utilizing this dry weather to drain habitually wet areas.

1.  Sod is cut and lifted.  2.  Trench is dug and soil removed.  3. Pipe is installed and back filled with gravel and sand. 4.  Trench is tamped, leveled and sodded. 

 

 

 

The collars are still slow to green up.  The weather has cooled off and become a bit more normal.  We continued work on these areas today with a solid tine aeration and a quick release Nitrogen application.  The entire golf course also received an application of fertility today to help jump start the grass once warm weather really gets here. A lot of areas on the collars are still greening up and we are optimistic about the majority of these areas.  Some of the highest traffic areas will be sodded and we will be evaluating them over the next two weeks.  We have a closed Monday on April 21 that may be prime for sodding out bad spots in collars if weather permits.  We are lucky that we have experienced little to no winter kill on any fairways or tees.  Our main focus right now is the collars and putting greens.  The greens have looked a little bruised as we are still exiting the aeration process and beginning to firm up and gain speed.  The bruising is a side affect of rolling after topdressing.  The longer leaf blades rub against the sand and bruise.  As we continue to get a better quality of cut and work through the sand, the bruising should be greatly reduced. 

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Wind Prevents Applications while Dry Weather Allows Much Needed Drainage Work

Tuesday, April 03, 2012 Drainage, Projects

Yesterday was a fantastic Monday.  Our team had planned to spray greens and finish a herbicide application in the fescue but the wind prevented that from happening.  The wind and drying weather did allow for a lot of mowing and other work.  We mowed all of the fairways and got a dry cut on the greens.  After examining mowers this morning, I can say that the dry cut helped and we are finally starting to see a decent cut on greens following aeration.  Our equipment manager, John Anderson, has sharpened the reels on the greens mowers constantly to battle the dulling affect that the topdressing sand has on the mowers.

Our staff spent a long time on the range but the main project that was accomplished was a drainage project in #13 fairway.  The swale in the left part of the fairway about 75 yards from the green has been very wet this winter.  There are natural springs around this fairway as well as old drainage that has surfaced in this swale.  The need for drainage is obvious on certain fairways and the dry weather has allowed us to start fixing the problems.  In my mind, we have four habitual offenders that prevent cart traffic due to wet conditions.  In order of worst to best, #3, #13, #12, #4.  #3 has a myriad of issues including shade, natural springs and poor drainage design.  We have installed many, many feet of drainage in this fairway and along the cart path but a major drainage project will have to happen to fix every problem.  So we decided to start tackling the fairways that I knew we could fix.  Over the next few weeks, you should see drainage projects on #12 and #4 as well as small areas like behind #9 green.  These projects will encourage turf health and playability.  Closed Mondays allow us to complete vital projects that would not be possible during play.  This project will be wrapping up this morning and today's weather allows us to spray greens and fescue.  The fairways are really coming to life and we are excited to announce that today will be the first day of 90 degrees on the fairways.  I will be writing another blog post today about other issues but please be mindful of cart traffic, direction stakes, and on/off posts while driving in the fairways.

Edgar is trenching in the laterals off the main line.  The main line carries the water to an existing catch basin.  The area to the right has laterals on 10 foot centers while the left will have 5 foot centers based on how wet each area stays.

Our staff cleans out every trench and removes the soil.  The soil will be replaced with drainage gravel and sand.  The team is careful to remove sod and lay down plywood to keep the fairway as clean as possible.

The scope of this project is extensive but this area will definitely be dry.

Remember this small wet spot in #13 fairway?  This area is where an old drain line has surfaced and water is finding its way here.  Water is constantly running in this area due to natural springs.  We tied the old drain line into our new system.

After pipe and grave are installed, the lines are sand capped to encourage drainage.  These lines will be tamped and resodded.

This is a good picture of the entire project.  This drainage project is installed in a herring bone design to catch water running through the swale and into this catch basin.  The drainage installed during the renovation is extensive and very inclusive.  We are adding to it and improving areas as issues arise.

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